In 1975, The Metropolitan Museum of Art acquired, by gift and purchase, more than 400 works of Japanese art from collector Harry G.C. Packard (1914‱991). The acquisition instantly transformed the museum into an institution with one of the finest collections of its kind in the West, comprising encyclopedic holdings from the Neolithic period through the Nineteenth Century.
The museum celebrates the 35th anniversary of the acquisition with the installation “Five Thousand Years of Japanese Art: Treasures from Packard Collection,” on view through June 6 in the Sackler Wing Galleries for the Arts of Japan, second floor.
Featuring more than 220 works, the exhibition showcases the collection’s particular strengths in archaeological artifacts, Buddhist iconographic scrolls, screen paintings of the Momoyama and Edo periods (Sixteenth⁎ineteenth Century), and sculptures of the Heian and Kamakura periods (Ninth⁆ourteenth Century), as well as a comprehensive selection of ceramics.
Some of the works have never been on public display, while others have rarely been shown because of conservation considerations. Highlights will be a pairing of masterpieces by a Kano school master and his son: “Old Plum,” a set of sliding-door panels by Kano Sansetsu (1589‱651) in the Packard Collection; and “One Hundred Boys,” a pair of six-fold screens by Kano Eino (1631‱697), which was acquired this year.
The museum is at 1000 Fifth Avenue. For more information, www.metmuseum.org or 212-535-7710.
